Expat Kiwis repaying their loans

The Herald reports:

The threat of a tap on the shoulder from Customs has led to more overseas Kiwis paying back their student loan, the Government says – including one who wrote a cheque for close to $100,000.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said the target of collecting $100 million in a single year through the overseas-borrowing initiative would likely be met next year.

That’s great. Moving overseas is not a good reason to not pay your debts.

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations has criticised the Government for compelling students to repay their loans through a policy of fear rather than supporting them with a more intuitive repayment scheme, saying it could drive graduates away.

Actually the Government did that also. It introduced a scheme where if you make voluntary repayments, you get an extra 10% knocked off your loan. NZUSA attacked that as favouring the wealthy. This has been NZUSA’s problem – they have been seen for too long as a branch of the Labour Party.